The Dodo Archive

Illegally imported greyhounds are drugged with arsenic and cocaine to make them run faster and encouraged to fight to the death, according to a blistering new report by the Daily Mail.

As many as 1,000 greyhounds are reportedly exported from Australia each year and sent to places like Hong Kong, Macau, Argentina and Chile. There, they're allegedly injected with the drugs, including methamphetamines and Viagra, before racing.

Despite the presence of legal dog tracks, many animals are forced to run in unregulated races and encouraged to fight to the death, leaving them with horrific injuries.

Dogs who don't perform well enough are euthanized or left to starve on the streets. Pictures obtained by the Daily Mail show dogs with bloody wounds and missing and broken limbs, and even a pile of dead greyhounds.

"I think what's clear is that the welfare of greyhounds is not a priority, these dogs come a distant second to profits on offer in this industry," Animals Australia representative Lisa Chalk told the Daily Mail. "Dogs sent to Macau from Australia are dead within three years."

Racing bodies like Greyhounds Australasia have cracked down on greyhound "passports" in an effort to stop the exportation of the dogs, but the group can't stop the trade on its own, and the Daily Mail alleges that hundreds of dogs have been exported through "back channels."

Animal protection groups are calling on Australia's federal government to step in and halt the trade entirely, citing additional concerns that the recent crackdown on Australian racing will encourage trainers to try and export their dogs elsewhere.

The report comes just weeks after the revelation that Australian greyhound trainers were still using the cruel and archaic practice of live baiting, where live rabbits, possums and piglets are swung around the track to engage greyhounds' chasing instinct. The bait animals are often mauled to death at the end.